Another Day At The Office
by SummerEliza
Summary: Exactly what is going on behind the scenes in the legal offices? Lots of things, apparently. A 100 Themes story that will take a look at what's happening in the legal offices of the world of Phoenix Wright.  Set during multiple times in the games.
1. Introduction

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Phoenix Wright.

This is part of a 100 theme project.

Theme 1: Introduction

* * *

Maya was late. Phoenix's gut had been nagging away at him all morning, telling him that hiring a teenager was a bad- scratch that, _terrible_- idea. So while he sat at the front desk, fielding calls from well wishers and the girl that still hadn't figured out that the law office was not a burger place and would never be no matter how many times she called, he kept one nervous eye on the door. Exactly what was keeping her? She had seemed so enthusiastic the day before. But then again, she had signed on at the law office in the after-glow of the trial. Most likely, she had woken up the next morning and realized that she had no business working at a law firm.

The phone rang again and Phoenix picked it up immediately, jarred out of his thoughts. "F- Wright & Co. Law Offices," he said smartly. He got a thrill every time he said those words. Somehow, he had his own firm! Yeah, he was a complete newbie at the whole lawyer thing, he still wasn't sure if his two wins had been complete flukes, and his only employee was a seventeen year old spirit medium, but that was beside the point.

"Iz this dah burger place?" a heavily accented voice asked. Phoenix resisted the urge to toss the phone at the wall.

"No, this isn't the burger place," he said, unable to stop a hint of impatience from creeping into his voice. "Did you check the number again?"

"Oh, me is vah-ree sorry," she said. Phoenix wondered exactly where her accent was from. It certainly didn't sound like any accent he'd ever heard. In fact, her voice sounded a whole lot like….

"Maya?" he said suspiciously.

An impish giggle came from the earpiece, confirming his suspicions. "Gosh, Nick, it took you so long to figure it out," she said breezily. "I called, like, five times."

According to Phoenix's calculations, it was more like ten. "Where are you?" he asked, sneaking yet another look at the clock. It read 11:12, which meant the morning was nearly over.

"Oh, yeah," Maya said, remembering what she had called for in the first place. "Could you do me a favor?"

Phoenix, not suspecting the magnitude of the favor he was about to be coerced into doing, agreed. It wasn't like he was particularly busy anyway. "Yeah, sure, what do you want?"

"Could you come down to the buffet place around the corner? I saw that they had a grand opening special this morning and couldn't resist," she said cheerfully. "Did you know that they serve burgers for _breakfast_? _Breakfast_, Nick! It's so cool! Anyway, I came in here and got all my food and stuff but I totally didn't realize that I forgot my wallet! So could you come bail me out?"

Phoenix slumped a bit in his chair and mentally went through the contents of his wallet. He probably had enough to pay for the meal. Maybe. "Yeah, I'll do it," he replied reluctantly.

"Thanks! We should totally eat lunch here!" He could hear chewing on the line and could imagine her digging into a burger. But girls her size couldn't eat too much, right? It wouldn't be that expensive. "By the way Nick, why are you answering the phone? Shouldn't have a secretary or something now that the company is named after you?"

Phoenix refrained from pointing out that _she _was supposed to be the secretary, considering she had no other useful job skills. He had gone to law school, dammit! She may have had latent spiritual powers, but that meant diddly-squat in the office! He bid her a hasty goodbye, not pointing out any of those important facts, and hung up the phone.

Later, after he had paid for four burgers for her, dragged her away from the restaurant, and tried to get her to do some actual work only to have her wriggle out of responsibility each and every time, he decided that Maya should have given herself a better introduction when he first met her. (Then again, when he had first met her she had been dragged away on suspicion of murder.) Perhaps something that went like this would have been better:

"_Hi! I'm Maya! I'm seventeen, a spirit medium, and I'm going to eat you out of house and home. I'm working for you only technically, so you're going to feed me and stuff, but I'm only here to keep you company. And annoy you. But don't worry, you can never stay mad at me for some reason, so you should just resign yourself to always having me around. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun together!"_

_

* * *

_A/N: Short chapter, but I enjoyed writing it. Hope you liked it!_  
_


	2. Love

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Phoenix Wright.

Theme 2: Love

And for your reading pleasure, I give you... Klema!

* * *

Love.

What a stupid, idiotic, idealistic idea.

Why exactly did it make people so extraordinarily hard to deal with? Ema wasn't normally quite so cynical about love, after all, it was simply a function of the body to ensure survival. Purely scientific. But those witnesses to Klavier's latest case…. Ugh. They were practically the poster couple for mushy gushiness. Every time they opened their mouths they spewed so much saccharine nonsense that Ema almost gagged on her Snackoos.

Klavier noticed that Ema's Snackoo consuming had quickened to an almost unhealthy pace, a sure sign of irritation on her part, and suggested that she wait outside until he was done. She complied without protesting, something she rarely did when the fop suggested anything. In the hallway, her Snackoo consumption rate slowed dramatically. She sat in one of the conveniently placed chairs. Somehow, she still could still at least partially hear the glimmerous fop and the equally glimmerous couple from her seat. (All those noise complaints about the fop's "music" suddenly made a whole lot more sense.)

"So considerate!" the woman cooed.

"….couple?" the man said.

She listened more intently but still couldn't pick up Klavier's much softer response. Oh, it was maddening! She couldn't tune out the fop's voice when she _wanted _to, but now she couldn't hear him when she was actually interested. After a few more seconds of listening, she gave up and started flipping through the files she was ready to give Klavier.

It was a pretty open and shut case. A man was shot in a public park by his ex-lover. Even Apollo Justice, the defense attorney for the case, couldn't win this one. There weren't just one or two witnesses. There were actually _three_ separate people that had witnessed this one. But then again, Mr. Wright was on Apollo Justice's side and Mr. Wright could create miracles from hopeless cases like that one.

She was guessing that the reason glimmer-boy was putting much more effort that normal into the case was because of who his opponent was. That morning she had attempted to reattach her jaw after the fop appeared at the crime scene on time! And he had even seemed pretty well informed on the case for once. It somehow made her able to stand him just a tiny bit more. (A very tiny bit more.)

A lot of what bugged her about him was his completely unprofessional behavior. Not only was he carrying on two separate careers that didn't mesh in any way but he also insisted on giving everybody irritating nicknames and flirting with anything that was both human and female. He also somehow managed to be completely carefree about the way he handled cases but still win the majority of them. Sometimes he blew off investigations entirely to go to attend to his big ol' fancy rock star life and left all the _real _work to Ema. He claimed that it was because "She was such an intelligent Fraulein and didn't need his help," but Ema knew it was just laziness.

She rested her head on the back of the chair and sighed. How long was this going to take? It was already ten and the fop still hadn't even gotten around to interviewing the third witness. She had hoped to get home early and catch up on some lost sleep. For some reason, the paperwork for cases had gotten a whole lot worse after the introduction of the Jurist System. Recently she had put in a whole lot of late nights at the office. And the fop was making the entire process much more difficult than it had to be. He was always turning in important paperwork at the very last possible second! It made Ema's job so much harder. She was vaguely considering giving him a piece of her mind as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Fraulein? Fraulein?"

Her eyelids fluttered open just enough to see a certain glimmerous prosecutor leaning over her. She jammed her lids shut again before realizing groggily that the motion was completely pointless. She had a sort of dim recollection of him repeating that obnoxious nickname multiple times so he most likely wouldn't be giving up any time soon.

"Perhaps you should be getting more sleep, ja?" he said lightly, standing upright again.

Her eyes snapped open and she fixed him with a glare that she wished had the power to vaporize him on the spot. Whose fault was it that she hadn't been getting enough sleep, huh? "If you would get things done on time for once, I _would _be getting enough sleep, fop!" she said irritably, her anger giving her a burst of energy that was much more effective than her usual caffeinated beverages.

"You had something for me, Fraulein?" he asked, bypassing her grumpy response. After all the time he'd known the detective he'd become used to her many moods. Most of the moods she displayed in his company were varied forms of grumpy, but that was beside the point.

She shoved the file at him and stood abruptly. He fumbled with the manila folder for a second, giving her time to begin her getaway. However, grappling with the file only detained him for a few seconds, after which he quickly caught up to her. "Why are you in such a rush?"

She didn't pause and continued to stride down the hallway as she shot him an icy glare. "I want to go home," she said coolly. "Contrary to popular belief, I do _not_ enjoy spending time in your office." (She really did want to kill Gumshoe for starting those rumors about her and the fop having a thing for each other. The reason she spent abnormal amounts of time in his office was because of his own irresponsibility, not because she had any sort of attraction to him.)

"But Fraulein, we have not yet gone over the case," he pointed out.

She didn't bother pausing and made a split second decision about whether she should take the elevator or the stairs. (Stairs, obviously. Being trapped in an enclosed space with the fop was very high on her list of things she never wanted to do in her lifetime.) "Fine," she said shortly, heading for the stairs. "What do you want to go over?"

"Would you stop walking, bitte?" he asked.

She fixed him with a stony glare and continued on her path to the stairs instead of responding.

"Fine. Would you at least take the elevator?"

She paused. "If you'll leave me alone once we're out of the building, then fine." He nodded and she changed her path. She jabbed the elevator button and stared at him impatiently. "Okay, talk," she ordered.

"Did you find anything new today?" he asked conversationally.

"No. And they wouldn't even let me test out my new luminol on the scene," she said, her lower lip sticking out ever so slightly.

He smiled, amused. Her passion for science really knew no bounds. "They don't like it when you destroy evidence, Fraulein," he said reasonably.

"It's all in the name of science," she said stubbornly. The door to the elevator slid open and the two entered the elevator. She hit the button for the ground floor and the doors slid closed again. "I'm just doing my job."

"You're a detective, not a forensics expert, ja?" he said, forgetting momentarily that the topic was one of her sore spots.

"You can't talk!" she snapped, immediately going on the defensive. "You don't even do your job half the time!"

He smirked. "I don't do my job? Name one thing I did wrong today."

Her frown got deeper. What was he so smug about? "You didn't talk to the third witness," she said triumphantly.

"No, I did that while you were asleep," he said, shaking his head. "You were asleep for quite some time."

"Wait, what time is it?" she said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. How long had she been asleep? The screen on the front of her phone read 12:45. She blinked and checked it again. When there was no doubt that 12:45- no, make that 12:46- was actually the time, she turned on Klavier. "Why didn't you wake me up?" she demanded.

He shrugged. "My meeting with the good Fraulein ran long. I assumed that you had gone home."

She assumed that the "good Fraulein" he was talking about was the third witness rather than another one of those girls that often threw themselves at him. (It had happened before. He'd invited some of them up to his office, much to her consternation.) "No, I was still waiting for you to finish talking with that annoying couple," Ema said grumpily, tucking her cell phone back in her pocket.

He tilted his head and stared at the elevator doors. "They were quite…" He paused, seeming to be searching for the word. "Affectionate."

Ema scoffed. "That's an understatement."

"Perhaps," he mused, his face serious.

She stared at him, waiting for him to say more. Surprisingly, he didn't. Even more surprisingly, he looked almost _serious._ In her company, the fop was rarely quiet. On the rare occasion that he was quiet, he certainly didn't look _serious_. The probability of the two highly improbable events occurring at the same time was incredibly slim. In fact, before that moment she would have sworn it was impossible. She would have assumed that she would enjoy the silence, but it was putting her on edge instead. People shouldn't go changing their natures on her! At least his obnoxious personality was a known quantity. In science, if you stuck an unknown substance in your experiment, it was likely nothing good would come of it.

So far, she wasn't liking this experiment.

The elevator doors opened and she hurried across the deserted lobby with Klavier close behind her. "Have you ever been in love, Fraulein?" he asked suddenly.

It was unexpected enough to make her pause. "Not really," she replied, surprised enough to answer honestly. "Why?"

"Hmm," was his only answer. The slight fear of the unknown weighing on her stomach intensified until the brooding look on his face melted off and was replaced with his characteristic teasing grin. "I'm sure you will become more _understanding_ when you are." With that, he swept past the flabbergasted detective and held open the lobby door for her. She was hit with a desire to kick him in the shins as she stomped past him. "Would you like a ride home?" he offered.

On his "hog?" She thought not. "Good night, fop," she said flatly, beginning her walk to the nearest bus stop.

* * *

A/N: This was fun. I've never written from Ema's POV before. (Actually, this is only my second PW story ever.) I'm not quite sure if I got Klavier right. Oh, and bitte means please in German.


	3. Light

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Theme 3- Light

* * *

The two people sitting in the Wright Anything Agency at about the same time Ema was walking to the bus stop were quite literally burning the midnight oil. Or, well, they were burning a multitude of candles, but Apollo sure wished there were oil lamps. At least they might provide more light that the few measly candles he had manage to scavenge from the piles of junk scattered throughout the office. For some reason, even after Mr. Wright had gotten his attorney's badge back, he had refused to clean up the office. He'd also refused to change the name back to the Wright Law Offices, despite Apollo's urging.

Apollo was terrified that Trucy was going to knock over a candle as she paced- or rather, dashed around- the room. He was trying to protect the papers he was sorting through from danger by hunching over the pile of files he had placed them on. "Polly," Trucy called, startling him into knocking the entire pile to the ground. She didn't even blink. Apollo was always pretty jumpy before trials. "I think I'm going to call Daddy."

"Why can't you just let me help?" Apollo asked incredulously.

Trucy tilted her head and gave him the mysterious smile she had perfected. "A magician never reveals her tricks, Polly."

"So you're okay revealing it to Mr. Wright but not to me?"

"Don't be jealous," Trucy said, dodging the question.

Apollo shook his head and gave up on ever understanding the teenage magician. He was not _jealous. _He simply couldn't believe that it was almost one in the morning and she was still hanging around the office. It was proof that Mr. Wright really wasn't the greatest of father figures. Apollo sighed and bent to pick up the papers he had knocked over. All he wanted was to finish reading the files for the case, do his Chords of Steel workout, and go to sleep. Was that too much to ask for?

He looked over at Trucy and concluded that yes, it was.

_**Earlier that night….**_

"Apollo? Hey, Apollo, you in here?"

Apollo wanted to hide behind one of the giant piles of junk. Every time Trucy came to visit while he was working she always ended up finding something he had overlooked that made him look like an idiot. Not that he didn't (sort of) appreciate it, but he could only stand to be shown up by a teen so many times. And why was she here so late anyway? It was almost twelve am! "Shouldn't you be at home?" he called, turning towards the door.

She stood in the doorway, bouncing lightly in place. "Don't be such a downer, Polly. Whatcha doing?"

"Going over the case," he replied, rustling the files busily.

"Cool," she said, coming over to him. She leaned over his shoulder, scanning the list of evidence. "Hey, what's that receipt for?"

"It's the victim's wife's alibi," he explained, picking it up. "She was at a café eating lunch."

"But there's no time on that receipt," Trucy pointed out.

He brightened, suddenly feeling a bit better about the state of his next case, but also tried to not slam a palm to his forehead. How had he missed that? He'd known there was something wrong about the wife. When he had talked to her earlier that day she had been so twitchy. Now all he had to do was discredit three different eyewitness testimonies. That was going to be oh-_so_ easy.

"I've got something to show you!" Trucy announced excitedly. Apollo flinched slightly, hoping that it wouldn't be another pair of Magic Panties. For some reason, she loved teasing him with those. She stepped back, her hands on her hips, and gave him the smile he recognized from the one time he had visited the Wonder Bar. "In this trick, I will be able to control the lights with just my mind." She flourished both her hands, showing that they were empty. "When I count to three, the lights will go out. One…. Two….. Three!" She threw her arms into the air dramatically, presumably to either trigger the lights to go out or make things more theatric.

It certainly was theatric, but nothing happened. She dropped her arms and stared quizzically at the ceiling. "Maybe you should try-" Apollo started to say. He was cut off by the room suddenly going dark.

Trucy bowed deeply while Apollo clapped half-heartedly. "Thank you, thank you."

Apollo _really _wanted to ask her how she had done it but knew that doing so would get him a minimum of a five minute lecture on artistic integrity. So he settled for trying to rush the trick to its ending quickly because he didn't want to be stuck in the office past midnight. Again. "Amazing," he said appreciatively. "Could you turn the lights on again now?"

There was a sheepish silence in which Apollo's hopes for getting out of the office anytime soon were hit repeatedly with a figurative rock. "I hadn't really thought that far ahead," Trucy said sheepishly. "I spent all afternoon trying to work out how to turn them off."

"How'd you turn them off? All you have to do is do the opposite to turn them back on!"

"I can't do that!" Trucy replied. "I don't know how the thing works in the first place!"

It ran through Apollo's mind that if she hadn't known how it worked she shouldn't have done it. He swallowed the words and tried to be helpful. "If you tell me how-"

"No," she said firmly, not even waiting for him to finish the sentence.

"But-"

"No way."

No matter how many times he asked, Trucy refused to let him help at all, which left him stuck there until she figured it out on her own. He managed to find some candles in the office and set them up strategically around the room. It took her almost an hour before she gave up and said she would call Mr. Wright. Amazingly, only a few seconds after he and Trucy stopped arguing about calling Mr. Wright, her phone rang.

"It's Daddy," she announced after checking the caller ID. She flipped open her phone and put it up to her ear. "Hello? Yeah, hi, Daddy." There was a pause in which Mr. Wright was obviously talking. "Sorry, I turned off all the lights for a trick and now I can't turn them back on." Apollo fervently wished that whatever Mr. Wright was saying would solve the entire mess. "Yeah, how'd you know?" Trucy continued. "Oh, that's all I had to do? Thanks." She listened for a moment more, said goodbye, and then hung up. "Daddy says you should go home now," she announced. "And that you should make sure I go home on time next time."

With that, she left the room, presumably to fix the lights. Apollo blew out all the candles and left as quickly as possible, taking the case files with him. Hopefully, he'd get out before she asked him for help.

* * *

A/N: Okay, this was definitely not my favorite chapter so far. I'm probably never going to write Apollo and Trucy ever again. I just don't really understand their personalities. Thanks for reading!


End file.
